THE HORSE LISTENER

Main photo: Horsewyse Magazine’s Hannah Pikkat was a ‘mane’ attraction with her two mini ponies.

B: Jochen Schleese demonstrating saddle-fit.

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CANDIDA BAKER looked, listened and learned at this year’s Equitana.

Ithink my Equitana truly began when I was watching Stacy Westfall, and she said to the assembled audience: “There is NO discipline in which soft easy rhythm isn’t better than the reverse.”

Oh yes. The saddleless and bridleless reining queen of the US, also the first woman to win The Road of the Horse in the US, was teaching a slightly hot little thoroughbred show jumper a four-leaf clover patter to help it relax, and for it to learn to bend on only one rein.

During the course of her class, the pearls of horse wisdom dropped effortlessly from her, and, although I was to hear this repeated over and over again in different ways over the next few days, she was the first clinician to tell us: “Make it really easy for the horse so they don’t have to think too much.” Encouraging the horse’s rider to literally drop one of her reins, she explained that, by dropping one aid: “It will show you both yours and your horse’s weaknesses and strengths.”

As well as the relatively simple four-leaf clover pattern, she introduced the idea of the counter-bend at a walk to introduce suppleness in a horse. And the last Stacy gem for that session was something I know all of us will have wondered about: “Always work a horse on its good side first. Finish on its bad side because they will make the connection that you stop working them after the bad side, and guess what? The bad side gets good, beacuase they’re like ‘whoah I get good on this side they’ll stop quicker and go and do housework or whatever and I get to eat grass…’”

I think my lightbulb moment at this year’s Equitana was hearing the same philosophy from so many of the great teachers there, namely that the horse comes first. A lot of the Hub Heroes I’ve interviewed throughout the year have stressed the idea that the horse should be considered as the athlete in the partnership, but at Equitana it showed itself in so many different ways, from training brumbies to miniature

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C: Horses of the Victorian Mounted Police are used for different jobs.

D: Vicki Wilson helps a young rider engage her horse’s hindquarters.

ponies, to police horses, reining horses, showjumpers, dressage horses, sporting horses - you name it, they were there, and I might add, apparently enjoying themselves as much as their human owners, riders and trainers.

Show jumping World Cup Champion and Horse Body therapist, New Zealand’s Vicki Wilson, also stressed making it easy for horses, and the utmost importance of a horse being able to use its body correctly. Competing at the New Zealand Horse of the Year Show, Vicki has won the Lowry Medallion five times and the Nationwide Cup nine times – more than any other rider in history.

“Set the horse’s body up so the job becomes easy, always work on activating the hind-quarters,” she said, teaching a group of young women on horses who were jumping 60cms at the start, which had doubled to 1.20 only an hour later!

“You need to really emphasise the evenness and strength of the canter, so they don’t have to try and do it themselves. It’s my job to keep my horses strong and fit, emotionally, physically and mentally,” she told us all. “If your horse is as strong and fit as it can be you hardly need to jump them at home. Some horses need more support than the rider gives them, other horses, our job is simply to sit still. All horses need to know is where they’re going and what you want them to do. If they understand, as long as they are able to do it, they’ll do it for us. Make it simple and easy to

‘ ‘ ... she simply steers herself towards them, and inserts herself in between them as if to tell them to head home and stay out of trouble

understand, as soon as we make it grey horses get confused. I have a World Cup horse that I can only ask him 1+1 = 2, anything else and his brain fries. I have other horses I can ask to do algebra. Have you ever stopped to ask: ‘What kind of student is MY horse?’”

It was the notion of this question, asked in many different ways over the four days, that reinforced for me the idea of a horse as a partner. Through centuries of breeding, genetics often determine what a horse will be naturally good at – as in a quarter horse cutting out a cow – but at the same time every individual horse has a different personality, and those personalities vary from a horse who might choose a road of no riding, given the chance, to a horse who laps up competition. Over the years I’ve owned both kinds, and you could no more make the top show jumper a laid-back pleasure horse or companion horse than you could the reverse!

Helping them to become the horse they want to be, is perhaps a better way of looking at the relationship with a horse, rather than abiding by the notion of them doing what we want them to do.

I’m pleased to say that every teacher there from Working Equitation champion Pedro Torres, to eventing maestro Chris Burton, to the training instructor for the Victorian Police Force horses, emphasized how important light hands are.

Talking of horse personalities it was fascinating to see the big grey police horse, Willow, now an amazing-looking 23-year-old 17hh Warmblood, who is still in active service. “She knows exactly what she has to do,” said the instructor. “If she sees a group of teenagers loitering suspiciously on the corner, she simply steers herself towards them, and inserts herself in between them as if to tell them to head home and stay out of trouble.”

Elaine Russell and my friends from Australian Equine Facilitating Learning were presenting on therapy horses, alongside the RDA legend Sally Francis, who spoke about what kind of horse makes a good therapy horse, which was an extraordinary insight into how technical the requirements are.

There were also a raft of bodyworkers and horse anatomy specialists in attendance. I was completely blown away by Jochen Schleese and his talks on saddles for women. It was SO simple – our pelvises are not the same as males, therefore the saddles we’ve been riding in for hundreds of years are not designed to help us stay in a relaxed shoulder, hip, heel alignment. My tip for the future – saddles for women are going to be BIG business.

American Karen Loshbaugh who was a show jumper and now

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does dressage, is the co-founder of Art2Ride Classical Foundation training. She showed us a basic tummy lifting exercise for our horses.

“A horse can’t be a great jumper until it can bascule over every fence,” she explained. “When you’re doing soft work a horse’s head is below the wither and endorphins are released, when the horse’s head is above the wither adrenaline is released. Back engagement makes the back strong. It can take TWO years once your horse begins to get the idea of the lift. Longer riding time isn’t always better engagement. A shorter ride can help their muscles more if the work is correct.”

Of all the products at Equitana – and there were thousands – I was coincidentally drawn to one I’d read a lot about, EQU StreamZ, the magnetic fetlock bands for horses, designed to reduce inflammation, swelling and stiffness, and to spead up healing. Little did I know the use these bands would be put to as soon as I got home, but that’s a story for February.

Eventing star Chris Burton mixed up show jumping and cross country in his Masterclass, and he hammered home the idea of looser reins: “Too much back with your hands girls – it’s not the 1980’s…” was a bit of a crowd favourite, and he reiterated several times: “Reins don’t help you, it’s line and distance. Longer reins, longer reins, longer reins…”

He gave advice on how to train your horse to jump on an angle. “Don’t trust the course designers they’re trying to trick you. Always ride in a snaffle except when really really necessary. Jumping a corner have someone at the side so they jump something the first time,” he said. “Don’t set them up for failure, and give them a guide pole in the beginning. By mixing up show jumps and cross country your horse gets used to going fast to the cross country and coming back slow to show jumps. Show them the line once, they know where to go and they will always remember.”

And then, of course, there was TWOTH (The Way of The Horse). I think the entire audience fell in love with the spirited Moriesian (Morgan/Friesian cross) that trainer Adam Sutton chose as his horse. She showed her proud and independent nature right from the start when she held up the start of the event for an hour because she point-blank refused to enter a round-pen. She may not have been the easiest horse to work with, but she was certainly the prettiest, and the most interesting. Adam was with Ken Faulkner, Bruce O’Dell and New Zealand’s Tui Teka, all of them previous winners of TWOTH, and to watch these masterful

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E: Stacy Westfall explaining one-rein flexion to a show jumper.

F: Chris Burton using guide poles to teach horses to jump narrow fences.

G: 44 Adam Sutton has a bonding moment with Joelle in The Way of the Horse.

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horsemen gentle their untrained horses (from a Morgan stud in Victoria) was a privilege. Adam’s horse, Joelle, formed an obvious bond with him, and on the last day of the challenge, I think all of our hearts with him when he said that he felt she’d told him she wasn’t ready to work in the arena without the roundyard, and that he was withdrawing from the competition. He put the horse’s needs ahead of his, which was wonderful thing to witness, as indeed of course was the winner, Bruce O’Dell, whose horse completed the challenges fearlessly. Finally, it seems only fitting that I finish on Stacy Westfall – I actually got to meet her after having interviewed her several times, and got a photograph. Did I say I’m a big fan?

“If you want to take your horse to a higher level in any discipline you must make it fun for both horse and rider,” she told us on the last day. “If you do the same thing or use any kind of punishment your horse won’t become a willing partner in what can become, if you encourage it, a truly playful relationship – and horses are naturally playful so don’t shut that down in your horse.”

Amen to that.